How Long Should an Analog Synth Take to Warm Up?

[Fisnotigut]

How long should I let an analog synth sit and warm up? Especially interested in the newer synths that have auto-tune feature. Should I let it sit for 15-30 mins and then auto-tune?

[kpatz]

Depends on the synth. What synth are you referring to?

 

Some synths drift more than others when warming up, and some take longer to stabilize than others. DCO-based synths don't drift (in terms of pitch) at all.

 

My Andromeda for example usually stabilizes after 30 minutes or so. I rarely run autotune on it, since after autotuning when warm, it pretty much falls into tune once it's warm.

 

It can also depend on your usage. A mono synth, played with one oscillator (or both manually tuned/detuned to the way you want), drift may not even be noticeable unless you're playing on top of something else which is in tune. Drift in polysynths tends to be more noticeable since there are multiple voices/oscillators involved.

[flat earth]

My Korg Trident MK1 usually takes about 5-10 minutes to settle down noticeably.

 

Oddly though, the MS-10 I once owned sounded right, from the moment it was fired up

[Fisnotigut]

I have a Jupiter 6 and rarely play it. How sad is that?!?! When I get it out and play I notice a couple of notes tend to drift more than others. Just wondering if I'm not giving the synth enough time to warm up. This is my first and only analog synth (which hopefully explains my lack of knowledge on the subject). All the others have either had DCO's or are romplers.

[Miket156]

Generally speaking, the older the synth, the longer it will take to warm up and stay in relative tune. Example: the EARLY Mini Moogs wouldn't stay in tune very well if you moved them around for gigs. I bought one in the early seventies and playing gigs in the north east in those days involved moving the equipment in the back of an unheated truck. Not good for ancient analog synths. I usually allowed it to warm up to room temperature whenever possible before turning it on at all. Then I would tune it an let it sit another 15 minutes or so and check the tuning. Sometimes when we were playing in very large venues that didn't have a constant temperature all night, that synth wouldn't stay in tune to save its life! Moog made some changes to the design and later versions of the Mini Moog were a lot more stable. Also, analog synths can be calibrated. If you knocked around Oberheims back in those days, you had to calibrate each Oscillator in order for the synth to get capable of getting in-tune with the other Oscillators. I started using lock n' seal on the adjustment screws and that seemed to help. The best solution was to handle it with kidd gloves. So its one of those "that depends" answers.

 

Newer analog synths have come a long way in terms of stability. Buying something mfg today is a better choice, if you like the sound and features.

 

Mike T.

[Gribs]

To really come to thermal equilibrium it probably takes a pretty long time. I am used to electro-optical measurements where we are interested in maintaining stability. To give you an idea, the projector bulb in a Fostec fiber light source can take up to 30 minutes to stabilize. You have to be careful in the laboratory when taking measurements over time that the bulb isn't fluctuating more than the effect you are trying to measure.

 

For a synthesizer that is not something burning at 3600 C like a tungsten filament inside an evacuated glass bottle filled with a halogen gas, in a package that is about 1000X the volume the real time until thermal stabilization is probably quite long. My guess is that there are at least two time constants of interest. The first is a short term time constant where the electronic components stabilize relative to their environment and the second is when the boards + case and stuff stabilize. The latter case probably has a measurable change in the time frame of several hours and so is also dependent upon ambient conditions (did the bar get hotter when all the people arrived?) but the former time constant is probably in tens of minutes - basically the time constant of circuit wires, discreet and integrated semiconductor components, and other electronic components like resistors and capacitors. So if you are playing for a short span you are likely to not notice the long tail. However if you are working all day in a climate-controlled studio you might notice that long tail and need to re-tune the synth over the course of the day.

[Gribs]

 

I started using lock n' seal on the adjustment screws and that seemed to help. The best solution was to handle it with kidd gloves. So its one of those "that depends" answers.

 

 

Nothing like the mechanical instability of the components of tuned resonant circuits. It reminds me of our OLED lifetime tester when we figured out that a large number of our device drop-outs were happening due to failed mechanical contacts.

[Fuzzlabs]

That's what the lava lamps are for...

 

Turn them on with the synths, and when the lava is bubbling, the synths should be ready...

[Bandard]

It also depends upon how hard you crank the starter engine and how tired Fred Flinstone is

[Gribs]

It also depends upon how hard you crank the starter engine and how tired Fred Flinstone is

 

It the real world were governed entirely by linear diffusion of heat, the best way to come to thermal equilibrium as fast as possible would be to dump a whole days worth of energy into the keyboard in as small a time interval as possible. The problem with doing things like that is it can cause things to explode The real world is not all linear diffusion of heat.

 

Been there, done that. I've also done experiments to measure the cumulative probability of things blowing up versus the amount of energy dumped in and the rate of energy dumped in. In my case it was to eliminate thermal imaging defects in a laser-thermal imaging system. The defect were called, quite creatively though not by me (LOL) "Blow-up defects"

 

Link to one of my patents on a thermal mass transfer donor element that reduces imaging defects (i.e. "blow-up defects")

[Purity_Control]

fwiw, my old p600 i used to switch on half an hour before i planned playing, once i hit autotune it would drift a little (in a nice way) after that but not much.

 

current doepfer kit i usually give about half that, seems fine every time

[Darkstorm]

Just put it on the bbq grill for a few minutes. Thatll warm it up nicely in short time. Then you can make hamburgers while letting keys cool off. Lol. But really The old korg poly6 I used to have didnt take more then 10 minutes to warm up fully for me. Course wasnt often doing stuff that was real note specific with it, more just dark whirly twirling dark pads and occassional lead voices.

[urbanscallywag]

Oddly though, the MS-10 I once owned sounded right, from the moment it was fired up

 

There isn't an exponential converter in front of the MS10's oscillator to warm up before playing. This is the source of most of the instability in VCOs.

[xpander]

old stuff is 5 to 15 minutes to be playable although you'll need to keep tuning it as you play, less often the more time goes on. much less effort than an electric guitar at any rate- just one knob to turn assuming you don't have a synth that's scaling goes out every time you use it.

 

in my experience, the new analog stuff is pretty much good out of the gate.

[grumphh]

My JP 4 is pretty much in tune right after having been turned on.

[midi]

About 25 years...